I'd like to start off by saying I've been following the Droid X and every piece of information I could dig up on it for a while now. I have one pre-ordered at Best Buy and am quite excited for it.
However, I think that after a ton of research it seems to me that as far as Motorola is concerned, only allowing Motorola signed ROMs is not only acceptable, but has been their business practice on every phone release
other than the DROID for many years. As quoted from Lori Fraleigh, the manager of the technical team behind the MOTODEV program at Motorola:
Securing the software on our handsets, thereby preventing a non-Motorola ROM image from being loaded, has been our common practice for many years. This practice is driven by a number of different business factors. When we do deviate from our normal practice, such as we did with the DROID, there is a specific business reason for doing so. We understand this can result in some confusion, and apologize for any frustration.
Quote taken from
Custom ROMs and Motorola's Android Handsets - MOTODEV Discussion Boards
{I'd like to also note that this has already been quoted in the thread before, and I'm not trying to take credit for finding it - thanks to whoever put in the research effort to find this - I just felt it was useful to reiterate for my post specifically}
The question that a statement like this brings up in my mind is not one so much concerned about the Droid X and what can be done about it, but about Motorola's fit with the Android OS and community. Perhaps this is not so much of an issue with the Droid X itself, but rather, Motorola confirming that their business practices really do not fit in well with the open development principles that Android has stood for.
If this is Motorola's trend, and they truly do instate encrypted bootloaders that will only run ROMs that have been digitally signed by them on all of their phones in the future, then in my eyes they are handing the reigns over to other manufacturers like HTC and Samsung. I think they will continue to release "state of the art", beautiful devices - like the Droid X - but without the software - or the availability of software - to back those devices up, I'm not sure they going to be able maintain a competitive position in the market for Android devices. While I'm excited for my X to come in, part of me is curious if I should pick up an Incredible to hold onto for a potential day when ROMs of Gingerbread or beyond are available for HTC phones and no longer usable on Motorola ones.
I whole-heartedly agree with kwest12 in his post about being a "vocal minority" and the importance of expressing our discontent to Motorola.
Read his post here
While this whole situation makes me doubt Motorola's commitment to the openness that Android is supposed to represent, it absolutely cannot hurt to spread the word about the limits Motorola claims as their "common practice for many years" and our issues with it.
However, the fact Motorola's response to the outcry from European customers over the Milestone's inability to flash user-created ROMs was for those customers to purchase developer devices from Google or HTC reassures me that Motorola is apparently not afraid to lose customers over this (I wonder how Verizon feels about that statement). Hopefully Motorola is underestimating the interest in and value of their current/potential customers who consider having this freedom an important factor in their smart phone purchasing decision, and that this underestimation can be brought to their attention before they give away all of the customers that saved their company (if you don't know about their past, just Google "how Android saved Motorola").
I think it's an important point to note that it is the serious Android enthusiasts (those who are most likely to be running other ROMs) that will stick with their Motorola Android-based device when the rest of the public moves onto the next hot thing. I think we are worth quite a bit more than Motorola seems to think we are.
-Matt